Ready for a short and sweet post? Good!
Today, I wanted to share 30 journaling prompts I’m using in my bullet journal this month. These are great, general prompts to get yourself in the habit of writing every single day. You don’t have to choose just one to write every day—you can pick one or two. Or you can just follow the numbers and take your time. Whatever works for you!
I hope you find these prompts helpful. Make sure to follow me on Instagram for more journal prompts!
Welcome to the Diversifying Your Skills series! Learning new skills in your life and career can be really rewarding—but challenging at the same time. What does it mean to realize you’re missing a skill for your career or, worse, life? How can you best learn new skills? I’ll be answering those questions and more in this weekly series.
When I first started freelancing, I knew there were a few skills I had that set me apart from other freelancers or would simply make me an appealing person to work with. They were the fact that I was organized, knew how to set up and run a project, and was an expert in my field (even if I don’t always feel like an expert in my field). However, there were a few skills that I knew I didn’t have.
That meant I had to learn them.
These skills are important to freelancing, and really to any job, but I just didn’t have them; they included things like networking, bookkeeping, and client management. Learning these huge, new skills took time, effort, and dedication. But I knew I needed them.
As time has passed, I’ve realized that constantly learning new skills, or adjusting what I already know, is a major part of my life and my career. There will always be things we don’t know. But not knowing isn’t an excuse not to learn, not to try, or to give up.
If you’re reading this post, then you’ve probably asked yourself “Do I need to learn new skills right now?” at least once. Let’s break down why learning new skills for our lives or career isn’t a failure, what learning new skills is super valuable, and what else I’ll be covering in this weekly series for September!
Learning doesn’t stop the moment we turn 18. Or the moment we graduate college. Or when we’re 10+ years into our jobs.
We’re all constantly learning. (And if someone isn’t learning new things every single day, or just refusing to learn new things, well, then, I have some feelings about that and I’m sure you do too.)
On the internet, it feels like everyone is an expert. No one feels like a beginner or someone who is just learning. Influencers position themselves as experts on things (parenting, skincare, home decor), but are they really? You should always question someone who says they are, unequivocally, an expert. Why? Because even experts (and at this point in my career, I’d say I’m expert-level in my knowledge of 2 things: blogging and social media) admit freely that they are learning new things every single day.
Being a lifelong learner means staying curious about things, even unrelated to your career, or hobbies, or life. It means asking questions when people talk to you (because you want to know more and learn!); it means reading articles, seeking out new information, talking to people about solving issues.
Being a lifelong learner doesn’t mean you’re in school all the time; it just means that you’re always trying to improve your knowledge, your outlook, and your life.
When I had my son, I didn’t know how to breastfeed. Even 4 weeks later, visiting a lactation consultant, I realized that part of the reason I never successfully latched my son was because no nurse during our 7-day hospital stay explained to me what I was supposed to be doing. They always just said, “Ok, let’s try to latch him” then just watched my struggle and not know what to do for 20 minutes before sighing and holding out a bottle. (This did wonders for my self esteem!)
There is always something new for us to learn. Something that other people can teach us. When you see someone struggling, there is always a question if you should say something. If you see a new mom struggling to successfully latch her new baby, should you say something? (I’m on the side of YES you absolutely should!) If a new coworker doesn’t know how to use the coffee machine in the break room, should you show them? Yes. If you would want to be taught these things, you should be willing to help others.
Sometimes, learning something new can feel frightening, difficult, or overwhelming. Or sometimes, we end up learning a new skill that invalidates lots of our old ones. (For example, I know Hootsuite like the back of my hand—but because it no longer offers a full suite of scheduling tools to free subscribers, I don’t recommend it or even use it. Working with small businesses has taught me that scheduling tools are far too expensive and it invalidates a lot of my agency-level knowledge.)
Always think of yourself as a lifelong learner, someone seeking value in learning new things; there will probably never be a point in your life where you know everything.
So what now?
You know you need to learn new skills—either for your job, or your hobby, or something you want to achieve.
So where do you start?
I’m glad you asked! This month, I’ll be sharing a post every weekend about learning new skills: what skills you need for freelancing, the best places to learn new skills, and much more. I hope you find it valuable! Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter going out at the end of the month for exclusive content.
Some people choose a freelance career. It becomes the best choice for them. They have time to prepare, to create a workflow, to research and get ready for the path they’ve chosen.
However, some of us don’t quite have that going for us.
Have you ever seen those memes on TikTok about puppy dog eyes girls (I can’t add that emoji to my blog post, but you know what I’m talking about!) versus bruh girls? I feel like those memes could be easily applied to lots of things, but especially to “those who choose freelancing” versus “those who fall into freelancing.”
Those who choose freelancing have a great Instagram aesthetic, great topics for their Reels, and a workflow ready for invoicing, keeping time, charging clients, and more.
Then, there are those who fall into freelancing: crash landing into tax season, knocking over everything in a coffee shop trying to figure out invoicing, late night panics about chasing invoices or getting new clients.
You get the drift.
This blog post is for the people who fell into freelancing—people like me. I haven’t shied away from the fact that freelancing wasn’t really something I chose, but really the only option forward at a certain point. After I got laid off, it felt like I was starting my career all over again. I was exhausted and burnt out and I just plain didn’t know what to do. Freelancing opened up as an option and I went after it—pretty much only because searching for jobs, and the variety of biased rejections I experienced, were soul crushing.
When I started freelancing in earnest, I didn’t have a process. I didn’t know what I needed. And unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the research I needed to do—I just kind of had to figure it out on the fly.
So, for those currently in the process of freelancing, let me make it easy for you. Here are 3 tools you need no matter what kind of freelance services you offer.
Surprise! You’re now your own bookkeeper and HR person! You’re going to need some kind of bookkeeping system. So far in 2020, I have kept myself afloat using a combination of Square for invoicing and a spreadsheet. I don’t have a ton of expenses—and because 2020 is the way it is, I don’t need to have tracked my mileage at all (because I haven’t driven… anywhere?). However, I already have a bettering bookkeeping system lined up for 2021.
One note here: you should definitely start a separate freelance banking account now. Get all your payments sent and/or deposited into this account; make all your purchases out of this account; and pay yourself out of this account. This will really simplify your life. (Unfortunately for me, right when my freelancing kicked into high gear, banks closed and I couldn’t open a separate bank account until JULY! My books are a mess, send help.)
Clients will often want a breakdown of how you spent your time on a project—even if you’re being paid by the service, not the hour. (Although you will frequently be paid by the hour!) My favorite tool for this is Clockify, which I’ve mentioned before. I like it because it has a Chrome extension where you can start your timer from anywhere. Plus, you can set up multiple projects underneath a client, which is great if you need to invoice differently for certain projects. They recently introduced a Dark Mode and while that’s not my thing, I know for many people, it makes a huge difference for them!
You’ll probably need to send emails to clients in some form, especially as you get more clients. If you have a website and start marketing, it’s good to have your email marketing plan set up now, rather than later.
I have used all of the email marketing tools out there but my favorite is Flodesk. The only downside to Flodesk is that there is no free level—it’s only paid. However, most people have sign up codes to use to get it for 50% off for life. (That’s a pretty good deal.) The templates are gorgeous. Plus, it’s the same price for however many email addresses you end up having—whether is 100 or 100,000. In comparison, MailerLite and Mailchimp charge over a certain number of subscribers and emails sent per month. You can sign up here and get 50% off.
It’s HERE!!! August is finally over. August is always a slog for me. I’d say alongside February, August is up there in my Least Favorite Months list. It’s always the hottest month; it’s the run up to school starting; and it is the month right before my favorite 4 months of the year (September, October, November, and December, obviously.)
Sometimes, I feel a little bad that I rush August so much. It’s not kind of August, is it? There have been many good moments in August! Danny and I took Forrest on some fun socially distant day trips. We had many picnics. We enjoyed the weather until we didn’t (100+ degree days are just not my thing). All that being said, I decorated for Autumn on the 22nd because I just couldn’t wait anymore.
We all have things we like and love. Autumn is one of those things for me. It feels like coming home! Summer is my least favorite time of the year, generally, and Autumn is my most favorite—so yes, I’m always going to try to rush through summer a little bit. I’m never going to love summer. I will merely tolerate it. And that’s fine! I hope you had a fun summer if you love it!
Now, for me… I’m just ready for Autumn. Which is why I created an Autumn bucket list printable just for you!
I printed and filled mine out to keep on the fridge. We will check off items as we get to them. I don’t plan to do all these things, but I hope to get to at least 50% of them.
To download your free printable bucket list, subscribe to my mailing list below!
I hope you love it and have a great Autumn!
I love a cozy summer look. Since I work from home, I spend a majority of my time in loungewear—I want to look presentable, but wearing a dress or full outfit can be super uncomfortable throughout the day. So here I am, back with another set of cozy summer outfits. You can read my previous post about cozy loungewear here.
I originally meant to post this a week or so ago, but ended up putting it off due to picture issues. You’ll probably recognize most of these images from my Instagram, if you follow me there, as I’ve been posting them. I’ve been playing around with my Instagram theme and trying to pick a filter that I like, so no, none of these photos are edited the same! No shame. :) (Full shame, actually. I wish I was better at taking and editing photos.)
I’m excited to share these 3 cozy summer looks, courtesy of Femme Luxe.
This tie dye top is from Femme Luxe and it is so cute and comfortable. I’ve worn it so much in the last few weeks that Danny was surprised I only owned one of it!
My bike shorts, however, are from Aerie’s new brand OFFLINE. They are SO comfortable. They have pockets on the side which are perfect for carrying my phone around from room to room when I’m home. And they go with just about everything. Tank top? Sure. T-shirt? Definitely. Big sweater? For sure!
This is the perfect cozy outfit for a hot day. But once it starts getting chillier, I will be wearing a zip up hoodie over this, just to keep wearing my bike shorts.
This is honestly my favorite loungewear set. It’s hard not to love it! It’s comfy, cozy, and fits really well. I ordered a size Large in this one and it fits pretty well. (For reference again, I’m usually a 14 in pants.)
It is a forest green color that will be perfect for Autumn and Winter when we get there. It’s cozy enough for wearing around the house; the pants have pockets (my favorite!); and it looks professional enough for those Zoom calls.
In this photo, I’m also holding my Passion Planner. I recently became a Passion Planner ambassador, so you can use my code MICHELLEL10 on the Passion Planner website for 10% off!
I know this isn’t the best photo, but as I was editing my photos for this post, all the others were blurry. What can I say? It is what it is!
I’m holding my new Coop Home Good pillow here—I’ll have a review on this pillow coming soon. However, you can check out Coop Home Good pillows now! They’re super soft, heavy duty microfiber filled pillows. I am a terrible sleeper, but my Coop Home Goods pillow has been helping so much.
This loungewear set is a cropped top with a set of high waisted stretchy pants. I really love it. But mostly I love the color. It will be perfect to wear the pants with a sweatshirt come Autumn.
Disclaimer: These outfits were provided by Femme Luxe, as signified by the asterisk (*) in the title of this post. Posts like this help me keep the lights on at Writing Between Pauses. To learn more about my advertising and disclosure policy, click here.
It feels like a universal problem: women put themselves last on the list when it comes to self-care or just basic necessities. Time slips and suddenly, we find ourselves 4 years postpartum and not having been to the doctor for, well, that entire time. We skip getting ourselves new things in favor of the others in our life. We fold the laundry while listening to a podcast instead of just relaxing. There are a thousand little ways that people, but especially women, find themselves putting the needs of others before themselves.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
But when taken to an extreme, it definitely can be.
Caring about other people isn’t a problem. The problem is not having boundaries when it’s too much.
One of the things about setting boundaries is this: you have to keep your boundaries, even when it’s hard, even when it’s challenging, even if sometimes you want to do something. (To read all my posts about Setting Boundaries, click here!)
When it comes to taking more time for yourself, you’ll need to set boundaries around your work life, personal life, and home life. That’s not easy work, but it’s worth it in the long run. Let’s talk through a few ways to set boundaries and have more time for yourself.
You don’t have to say no to every project—but if you just plain don’t have time in your schedule (and you know when that’s true—you just do!), it’s ok to say no. In fact, it’s best for you to just say no to those extra projects. As fun as they might be. As good as they might before you. As much as you might want to help a friend or a favorite client.
Say no to the extra projects. That’s a boundary.
You don’t have to say, “No, sorry!” and that’s it. Here are a few ways to say no to extra projects to help you out:
“Thank you for thinking of me! This sounds like a really great project. However, my schedule is full until January. If it can wait until then, I’d love to take it on.”
An alternative ending: “My schedule is full until January. I have another friend that I think might be perfect for this project. Can I put you in contact with them?”
That’s it! Here’s a run down of what to say if your situation doesn’t fit that scenario:
Acknowledge the feelings. (This sounds fun! or I’m so glad you thought of me, that’s so kind of you.)
Communicate the boundary. (My schedule is full; I don’t have time; I want to do a good job, but can’t because of my schedule.)
Provide an alternative.
I know this sounds not-so-fun, but it’s the best advice I can give you. If you, like me, struggle to make time for yourself, but also struggle to prioritize housework, then this is for you.
When it comes to housework, I want a beautiful, clean, organized home. And about 65% of the time, I have it. But it’s usually because I fall behind in what I’m doing, get distracted, or get burnt out—so I do one big cleaning every other week instead of cleaning throughout weeks to keep my home nice from the start.
A few months ago, I started setting a timer for every evening at 6pm. I drop whatever I’m doing and go clean the kitchen: finish the dishes, wipe down the counters, clear away the clutter, sweep the floors if I need to. It takes maybe 30 minutes, but it helps me feel just a little more productive. In the morning, I set a very similar timer to quickly clean the bedrooms: make the beds, pick up toys/blankets/etc, clean the bathroom toilets if they need it, and whatever else needs done in that 20-30 minute window.
It’s been hugely helpful to set aside these 2 windows every day to get the chores done that help my house feel the cleanest. It makes weekend cleaning way less insurmountable and the more I include these in my schedule, the more they become part of my routine.
Then, every Sunday morning, I do a full house cleaning: vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, the works. It makes it easier to have taken care of some of that work throughout the week. This means once I’m done with a 2-hour cleaning binge on Sunday morning, I have all the time in the day to do whatever I want.
If you have kids, you know that quality time alone is a challenge. Our kids love us and they want to be around us. It’s hard to tell your kids you want time alone—they don’t understand this concept because they are almost universally more social than us. (Sometimes I think about the fact that I used to go to school and be social every single day and it’s like… shocking.)
That being said, sometimes it’s about picking your battles with kids. If you need quality time to recharge, is there a way you can do this with your kids?
Here’s a scenario: Forrest really can’t fall asleep alone. He’s just at a very specific age, and of a very specific temperament, where this is a challenge for him. I could fight with him to stay in bed every night for 2 hours until he passes out and have 0 time for myself… OR I could let him lie beside me in bed while I listen to music and play Animal Crossing. Which sounds more pleasant to you?! That’s what I thought! And I agree.
Pick your battles. What will you fight your kids on? Helping with chores, keeping their rooms clean, not asking you to do things that they can easily do themselves. What will you night fight your kids on? Things that will make your life harder, take up more of your time, or generally make the house a miserable place to be. This will be different for every parent and it’s really up to you. But I know you have it in you to make these choices! Set your boundaries, communicate them, and choose what to fight about.
This month, we’re going to talk about establishing boundaries: in your business, in your personal relationships, and beyond. Establishing boundaries is so important to everyone and something we don’t talk about enough! I hope you find value and comfort in these blog posts. You can read all posts in this series by clicking here.
This week, I’m finally ready to post my full guide to setting boundaries. This guide will cover everything you need to know about setting boundaries: what that means, how to do it, what to say, and how to keep yourself from letting boundaries lapse.
Boundaries are one of the best things you can do to keep your relationships—from work to home—emotionally healthy, as well as to improve your own mental health. There are tons of benefits to setting boundaries—you can read the pull quote below, but here’s a rundown:
Setting boundaries reduces your stress, as well as your mental load. If you aren’t having to constantly balance the emotional needs of other people, or be on call to everyone at the same time, then you will experience way less stress.
If you have children, setting healthy, respectful boundaries teaches them to do the same thing: to set healthy, respectful boundaries, to respect themselves, and to prioritize their mental health.
Setting boundaries help define the line between your work life and your home life.
I’m glad you’re here and reading my guide to setting boundaries. As I’ve said in previous posts in this series, I’m not a mental health professional—just one person who loves to write and who attends therapy to help set boundaries in my professional and personal life! I hope you find this guide helpful.
What does it mean to set boundaries?
Good question! Here’s an example to help illustrate what that means.
Let’s say you are a mom of 2. Your children’s ages are 3 and 1. Both are walking, but only one is verbal at this time. They have a bad habit of always following you into the bathroom no matter what. You wish they wouldn’t, but if you close the door, the one-year-old throws a fit and the 3-year-old joins in.
What is a boundary to set in this example?
Establishing with the 3-year-old in age appropriate language that you want to be alone in the bathroom. Bathroom time is private time.
Remind yourself that you deserve private time. Again, bathroom time is private time and you get to decide if you want your children in the bathroom with you or not.
Encourage the 3-year-old to entertain the 1-year-old when you’re in the bathroom. “It upsets [baby] when I go to the bathroom. But bathroom time is private time. If she gets upset, can you comfort her for me? You’re so helpful! When I’m done, we can all bake cookies together.”
Firstly, the boundary is defined: you want to go to the bathroom alone and you have that right, even from your children.
Secondly, the boundary is communicated: from now on, you’ll be going to the bathroom alone and closing the door. There will be consequences if they open it.
Thirdly, acknowledge their emotions. “I know it’s upsetting with Mama goes to the bathroom alone. I love that you want to spend time with me. But bathroom time is private time.”
Lastly, you keep the boundary. When you go to the bathroom, you close the door and you don’t let your children sit at your feet.
That’s just one example of setting a boundary! But here’s a rough outline of those steps again:
Define the boundary and why it is important to you.
Communicate the boundary.
Acknowledge the needs of others.
Keep the boundary established (even when it’s challenging).
The last steps is admittedly the hardest one. How can you stick to your boundaries when you have a child crying outside the bathroom door? Or when a client calls you over and over on a Saturday afternoon? Or when your boss asks you to please respond to emails after 7pm? Where do you draw the line? Let’s talk about sticking with our boundaries—that will make up the majority of this guide!
First things first, let’s remember why we’re setting boundaries in the first place.
In the example I provided, we aren’t setting a boundary with our children to be alone int he bathroom because we don’t like our kids. We want and deserve a few minutes alone; and we want to make sure our children understand that bathroom time is private time.
Boundaries are created out of love and a desire to be better--not a desire to hurt other people.
Setting boundaries doesn’t mean we don’t love the people around us, that we don’t like them, or that we don’t respect them. You can set boundaries and show love and kindness while doing so!
All that being said: sometimes, our boundaries aren’t respected. This doesn’t happen out of unkindness, usually. It just means that perhaps they don’t understand the boundary, they don’t understand why it’s important, or they don’t realize that what they’re doing is crossing the boundary. However, sometimes people do it, plain and simple, because they don’t feel like respecting your boundaries—which means they don’t really care about respecting you. In this case, the only advice I have is this: it’s not your job to make it easier for them to do this!
Enforcing boundaries with love and kindness will look different for everyone. However, here are a few example phrases I keep in my arsenal:
“Do you remember when we talked about appropriate times to text me? It was a few weeks ago, so I just want to circle back to that and remind you that my working hours are…”
"Last time we spoke, I mentioned that I do try to get to emails within 24-48 hours. A few days ago, you emailed me 3 times in 2 hours. I get that sometimes things happen, but due to the volume of my inbox, I have to ask you to please not do that. I appreciate you as a client and this project is so fun, but that does get overwhelming for me.”
“I’m so excited to bake cookies with you later. But for now, I need to work. I’ve put the red light sign on my door. Do you remember what that means?”
Keep gently reinforcing boundaries! You don’t have to be rude (or feel rude!) when you do it.
When we set boundaries, we want to make sure that not only are we communicating our boundaries, but also acknowledging the feelings of others as we do so. This might mean:
Reminding our children that we love them and respect them and that, when we’re doing with xyz, we’ll do something fun together.
Reminding our clients how much we appreciate their work.
Reminding our friends and family that we appreciate them and love them.
Communicating boundaries respectfully also means acknowledging the boundaries and feelings over others. This might mean having longer discussions about our boundaries, how we communicate best, and how we don’t want to be spoken to. This is great for extremely close relationships, like your partner, siblings, parents, or others.
However, for clients, this is definitely more complicated.
Sometimes as freelance workers, we can feel not like we are a boss, but rather like we have multiple bosses. With all my clients, I try to reiterate one small fact: I am a freelancer, not an employee; as such, I am not beholden to rules of an employer like an employee would be. I set my working hours; I set my response times; and it is up to me set those expectations from the beginning. Those expectations are ultimately boundaries and if a client repeatedly pushes on them, the boundary needs to be established even more—and reinforced, as we’ve discussed. That being said, this is a relationship that is often much more fraught, because it is almost entirely without emotion.
Our work boundaries are often more challenging to communicate than our personal life boundaries—and that’s ok. Here are a few great things to say:
“Hi there! I’m sorry if you expected a reply to this when you sent it. For the sake of my mental health and to allow myself to be the best employee, I do not respond to work emails or questions after 6pm. I try to get to these emails and texts first thing when I start my work day though.”
“I noticed that you have been texting me after 6pm a lot recently. Here is how I prioritize my work. Would that help you better understand why I’m not getting to things at a certain time?”
“Would it be helpful to schedule a weekly check in time so that we can handle all of these concerns at once? Maybe that will reduce both of our inboxes!”
This is definitely challenging work, but it is valuable. The more you communicate your boundaries, and reinforce them, the easier it will get.
Setting boundaries is where we are all most likely to experience gaslighting, unfortunately. In this case, I want to the Mindgeek on Instagram, who has tons of resources to responding to gaslighting behavior.
Here are a few examples of gaslighting in response to setting boundaries:
“I don’t remember you saying that” or “that’s not what you said!” when you remind them of your boundaries.
“It’s not that bad”
“You’re just being dramatic.”
If you experience these things, the only thing I can offer is sympathy; know that I understand, your boundaries are valuable and important; and that you know your truth more than anyone else. The Mindgeek’s tips are good ones.
Where do I go from here?
You set the boundary; you communicated it; you’ve been working on enforcing it… what happens now?
The thing about setting boundaries is this isn’t one-and-done work. It requires constant checking in and re-establishing. It can feel overwhelming to think of this work as being one that never ends. But instead of thinking of it as endless (“oh my god, I have to keep reminding my kids to do xyz everyday—this is the worst”), think of it as an opportunity: “each time I remind my kids of xyz, I get another opportunity to teach them to prioritize their mental health and relationships.”
Working on ourselves and our mental health isn’t ever going to be a one-and-done process. Don’t I wish it was! That being said, looking at things as opportunities to grow and change, to experience something new, to work on being our best selves is much, much better than thinking of it merely as endless, slogging work.
I hope you found this guide to setting boundaries helpful. Thanks for reading, as always!
One of my biggest pet peeves is feeling tension. It’s a feeling I absolutely can’t stand. Whenever I start to feel tense, or a tension headache starting, it’s almost unbearable. It’s not that it hurts physically—but I just find it so annoying. “Why are my shoulders doing this? I don’t have time! Shoulders, chill!”
For a few days, I started getting a sharp, dull pain almost like heartburn. I was reading a book that I found pretty upsetting—My Dark Vanessa for anyone who is curious—and realized after 3 days of wondering if I was having a heart attack or what that I only felt this feeling while reading the book. It was a mixture of tension and anxiety. All I had to do was… just stop reading the book. More than anything, I found this discovery deeply annoying; thanks body, I can’t even read a book!
That being said, there are ways to relieve tension that can help you, like me, stop feeling so annoyed that you’re getting another tension headache (it can’t possible be that I stare at a screen 14 hours a day). And no, I don’t mean diffusing a certain essential oil scent (although that can feel nice and if you love it, you love it, no shade).
A few weeks ago, I realized that I needed to start taking steps to tackle my tension before it became a full blown tension headache or migraine. I tend to feel my tension in my shoulders and across my chest/collarbone area—usually after a few hours working in front of my computers or particularly when I’m doing a task I find really stressful. I’ve found a few solid ways to do just that and I thought I’d share.
Here are my top 3 ways to relieve tension.
I unabashedly love Hilma products. I even wrote a whole review about Hilma. Hilma’s Tension Relief is one of my favorite products because it does just that: relieves tension. It helps get rid of those annoying tense shoulders, the eye strain, everything. After a long day in front of a computer, it’s become part of my routine to take a Tension Relief, run a warm bath, and settle in with a good book. You can try Hilma’s Tension Relief for 20% off your first order by using my code MICHELLE20.
Are these the words you want to hear? No.
Are these the words I want to hear? Also no.
I love screens. There, I said it. I love them! I love staring at the bright blue light of my tiny phone. I love reading on my computer. I love my Kindle even. I love my Switch and my TV. I love them all! I love screens!
But screens aren’t good for our eyes. And they definitely aren’t good for handling tension either, especially if you’re feeling overly stressed. If you start feeling tension in your shoulders (or whatever your sign of tension is—tightness in your chest, a back ache, your legs itching to move), take a break from the screen(s). Go for a walk. Go sit outside with a real, physical book. Talk to your neighbor through a window. Dance in your kitchen to music. Just take a break—it doesn’t have to be a long one, just 20-25 miuntes or so.
I’ll be the first to tell you: I hate yoga. I get so bored during it. My attention span is low and when it comes to exercise, I want to move. That being said, yoga is one of the best ways to stretch, focus on your breathing, and (yes) relieve tension. Finding a simple routine that works for you will take time. I gave up on following videos a long time ago, but I do have a series of moves I do in my office when I’m feeling particularly wound up. It gives me time to think, breathe, and focus on something other than a screen.
I don’t have any recommendations for routines to follow because I think this is highly personal. Even just sitting outside and gently stretching like you used to before PE class might be better than anything else!
